Customer Reviews

Zero Kelvin [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Moller scores extremely high points once again with Zero Kelvin. Although the movie is supposed to take place in remote, brutal Greenland, the movie was actually shot in remote, brutal Svalbard, Norway.

Moller is particularly adept and assembling, perfectly managing , and directing exceptional actors. Skarsgard is more than first rate as the menacing, moody, sociopathic, and vicious Randbaek. This is certainly a departure from some of Skarsgard's more well known characters, and this role demonstrates his range and amazing abilities to present a multitude of characters in vastly different circumstances.

Gard Eidsvold is superb as a relatively innocent and decent man who is plunged into harsh reality and forced to adapt to survive. His character represents truth, decency, and love, but also represents what men are capable of in dire and seemingly hopeless circumstances where evil rules and goodness is fleeting.

Bjorn Sundquist, one of Norway's best actors, is great as the analytical, no nonsense, experienced scientist. He functions as the mediator between Skarsgard's and Eidsvold's contrasts, but is himself forced to take drastic measures in extreme circumstances.

This is a great film which combines extreme psychological contrasts and contradictions, beautifully filmed landscapes, and the brutal reality of sub zero temperatures where basic survival is the goal. In short, it is a harrowing game of psychological and physical survival with a lot of twists and surprises. Some of the hunting scenes, particularly the scene involving a nasty walrus, are amazing. The sledding with teams of amazingly stout and rugged sled dogs in extremely dangerous and perilous conditions are perhaps unprecedented.

I gave the movie 4 stars for a few reasons. First, although sled dogs and animals are a commodity in the brutal world of the North, I thought the cruelty was a bit overdone. I think a few scenes could've been eliminated. I'm not an animal rights activist, but once again, just a few scenes should've been left out. Second, Skarsgard's performance is tremendous, but I also thought the production went a little too far with some of Randbaek's violent and sexual rantings. We got the point that Randbaek was a vicious, disturbed sociopath, and the character was developed quite well, but we didn't need to have it reiterated all the time.

This film has a relatively limited cast - for the bulk of the film there are only three characters. The essence of the film is how these three characters interact when forced to live together in Greenland. Two are fur trappers who are jaded to the arctic, and have interesting, and somewhat peculiar backgrounds. The third is a writer from Oslo seeking to gain experience for his writing.

Slowly the misalignments of character traits grows, and the tension builds. It is a wonderful study of how vastly different backgrounds and personalities can drive people to extremes that one would not otherwise expect.

Over all of this is the magnificent sweeping grandeur of Greenland. Possibly a film better suited to the big screen (where I saw it), but it being so unlikely that you'll get the chance, you may as well reward yourself with the DVD.

In 1995 while reading the New York Times I saw a review for a movie called Zero Kelvin. I think more out of curiosity about the name I began to read it. Kelvin is a temperature scale whose "zero" equals -271 celsius. An allusion to the world in which the story takes place. Set in Greenland, it is the story of 3 men and the forces both from their pasts and from within which collide in a squalid hunting cabin by the sea. Stellan Skarsgard is the "foreman" of the group and they are charged with doubling the previous season's pelt quota. The two experienced men are joined by a writer who hires on for the experience, but does not count on the realities he finds there. The realities not just of the environment, but also of drunkenness, brutality, his own character flaws and the near edge of madness at which the leader of the group is poised.
A bit of a punk, and unable to forgive perceived wrongs - Larsen, the writer - refuses the opportunities he's given to make peace with the other two men and the anger and mutual retributions are explosive. Finally, their passions lead to all out war with tragic and final results. This has been billed as the thinking man's adventure, which it certainly is. There is psychological and gut-level tension here, finely acted by this ensemble cast. If Jack London or Hemingway suit your tastes, then this fine film will not disappoint. - JK -

A tough, tense, psychological thriller set in the bleak, frozen wilds of Greenland.

A young writer leaves Oslo and his girlfriend behind and joins a fur-trapping expedition that includes two mysterious men. Cut off from civilization, the once naive youth must use all his wits to survive the elements and a savage human enemy.

A rare, thoughtful adventure in an extreme setting starring the great Scandanavian actor Stellen Skarsgard.

Directed by Hans Moland from a screenplay by Lars Lundholm.

Visually stunning and mentally engaging. Highly recommended.

One UK reviewer (Bernard in THE DAILY MAIL) said it was "a Norse version of 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly.'"

Hard core Arctic adventure that goes all the way.

ZERO KELVIN delivers!

One of my favorite films is also probably the most misogynistic film ever made.

Be warned: this film has nothing nice to say about humanity what-so-ever.

A young, idealistic innocent, in love with his girl back home in Norway, has his heart and soul ripped apart in the frozen wastes of Greenland by the psychological (and before long, physical) torture of his employer, a huge, bitter misanthrope with an axe to grind with humanity and women in particular.

The movie is a tour de force of mankind's most cruel philosophies in action, and our hero learns that there are few things colder than the human heart, including his own.

The films visuals are a mind and soul numbing repetition of animal gore, awesome icy wastes and the dilapidated hovels where our protagonist lives, with the brutal and majestic shadow of practical survival hovering over all.

This is a place with zero remorse, zero sentiment, zero love. It's as cold as it gets.

Zero Kelvin.

This is a powerful film that has only its beginning and end as a downside, it is a film that concentrates on the relationship between the Nietzschean Beyond Good and Evil duality. The characters involved, a young philosopher/writer, who is innocent, a hard man, who represents corruption, and the scientist, who is a mixture of them both are put into a fiery situation, they find themselves on a deserted island near the artic, capturing skins for a company that is in Norway. At first they get along, but the stubborn man keeps bothering the poet and soon they are at odds with one another, eventually resulting in the destruction of one of them. I didn't like the beginning because it was pretentious and the end was too malicious but an excellent film indeed.

"Now you'll become one of the unhappy." These are among the last words Randbaek has for Henrik Larsen as they crouch on the icy deck of a wrecked boat cast up on the Northern Greenland coast. What a curious and fascinating psychological thriller this is, although "thriller" gives a wrong impression. What's been happening is the taunting aggression, the truces and betrayals that Randbaek (Stellan Skarsgard), a crude, tough trapper, has been inflicting on Larsen (Gard Eidsvold), a young writer who signed up for an adventure and got more than he bargained for.

Zero Kelvin takes place in the mid-Twenties. Larsen is a happy-go-lucky poet in Oslo who hasn't published anything. He has a girlfriend who wants to keep their love free and doesn't need such things as engagements. He signs up to spend a year in Greenland hunting and trapping. Of course, he'll keep a notebook and a letter from his girl. He winds up in a desolate, frigid wooden shack he shares with Randbaek, the trapping foreman, and one other trapper, Holm (Bjorn Sunquist). The wind howls and so do the sled dogs. There's nothing to see except shale beaches, snow and ice, and the endless cold, gray days. There's nothing to do except work, kill seals, shoot rabbits for food, skin animals, butcher the meat, and huddle around an oil stove at night. Randbaek has no patience with college boys or educated youngsters. He's capable, violent, raw and obscene. Henrik learns to pull his own weight, but it isn't easy. Randbaek's attitude toward Henrik gets worse. His descriptions of love to Henrik, and of making love to Henrik's girlfriend, are not for the faint-hearted. Randbaek may be a man to have along if your survival depends on it, but if Randbaek's survival depends on you not surviving, Randbaek won't think twice. Holm keeps his own counsel. Randbaek sees Holm as a friend, but Holm, something of a scientist, a sharpshooter, seldom takes sides. If the wooden shack they all share, sometimes with lice, seems close quarters, it quickly becomes claustrophobic. Eventually Holm has had enough. And Randbaek and Henrik sort things out in a way that is tough-minded and brutal. Henrik eventually returns to his girl. An engagement may happen. But Henrik is not the happy-go-lucky young poet we met earlier.

The movie is fascinating for several reasons. First, the icy desolation of the location chills your bones. Randbaek's taunting games, which really aren't so much games as a basic part of Randbaek's deeply unhappy emotional makeup, seem even more unpleasant because there's no place to escape them. Second, as time goes by and as we see Henrik's competence increase, we expect some sort of confrontation...and we aren't looking forward to it. Randbaek is a bulky brute of a man. It won't matter how righteous Henrik's case might be; this isn't a movie where the smaller guy would win. Third, you can't keep your eyes off the actors; they're that good. Stellan Skarsgard in particular gives a monumental performance as Randbaek. It's not that he's almost unrecognizable beneath all the greasy hair. Skarsgard has managed to create an utterly repellant, unpredictable man, yet a man we wind up feeling a little sorry for. "Are you so much better than me?" he shouts at Henrik, and a part of us wants to shout back, "No."

This is a tense and uncomfortable movie. I'm not sure how many times you'll want to watch it, but the first time will make an impression. The DVD transfer looks good.

First off, a movie being filmed in the Svalbard archipelago of arctic Norway (though SET in East Greenland) captured my attention to watch this movie for Svalbard is one of my favourite travel destinations. I find that this movie has a good story-line, however, for animal-lovers, this might not be the film for you. It's based on a small fur-trading station in East Greenland where only sources of food are through hunting...and perhaps, of course, their job there is to kill wildlife...as simple as that. Hunting wildlife has never been my thing and I am an animal-lover, that is why I didn't really like this movie much (but what I did I expect eh), though interesting, showing how the 3 men stuck in a small cabin cut off from the rest of the world, but at the same time, not being able to get along with each other.

Overall, the movie was okay...just the fact of trapping and killing animals hit my weak points (though of course I knew thats what this movie is about). But I wouldn't say I regret seeing it...

Saw the film yesterday. Thought it would be a kind of adventurous trapper-film. It isn't. It's a nervewrecking psychotrip. You won't stop for almost 2 hours wishing for Randtaeds (one of the trapper) death. Hard to stand through the film. I wouldn't recommend it for adventure-film-freaks. Frankly it's boring. Still it's not a "bad" film. But I bet: noone ever saw that film twice. One time is more than enough. We're all happy... very happy, that Randstaed finally died. What an idiot. Oh my god.

This was depressing and confusing and utterly unredeeming. And those are its good qualities. The first half hour shows promise; the rest of the movie fails to deliver anything but...depression and confusion, and again, there is nothing, no character, nothing, that is in any way redeeming. Utterly bleak. And did I mention confusing? You get the idea.